The Warriors built on their lead and stifled any hopes the Notre Dames Argos had of staging a comeback.

The Warriors won Game 3 Sunday 3-1 to claim their best-of-three South Saskatchewan Midget AA Hockey League playoffs series 2-1.

"In the third we played like we can," said Warriors head coach Darren Martens. "Hopefully we can carry that third period effort into the next round and the next series."

The Warriors won Game 1 by a decisive 6-1 score before losing Game 2 in Wicox 2-1.

"We had a really good first game and then we had an average second game. They took advantage of their chances to win," said Martens.

The Warriors, who finished third in the league standings with an 23-7-6 record will now face the second-place Swift Current K-Motel Hurricanes. Game 1 of the semifinal series will be played Thursday in Swift Current and the second game of the best-of-three series will be played Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at the Bert Hunt.

Warriors 3 Argos 1

Kamen George scored a power play goal in the first period for the Argos, but Bret Shillington tied the game for the Warriors less than two minutes later.

"It took us a little while to wake up in the first period, but each period we continued to pick it up," said Martens.

"For the most part, five-on-five we're pretty dominant, but we take some bad penalties. Most teams score on the power play against us."

The Warriors took a lead with 2:39 left in the second period when Kaleb Bell crashed the net to bury a rebound. The home side had plenty of opportunities in third period to ice the game, but in the end it was a Rylan Blacklaws deflection that iced the win.

Blacklaws and Shillington also added an assist each and Brayden McCarthy had two assists.

The Warriors out-shot the Argos 43-29. Thomas Spence made 28 saves in goal for the Warriors.

Argos 2 Warriors 1

Alex Hartman scored a power play goal 6:02 into the third period to win the game for the Argos.